Flexibility, patience key to success in India: Terry Walsh

New Delhi: Indian men's hockey's newly-appointed foreign coach Terry Walsh feels patience and flexibility are the two key ingredients which a person needs to be successful in a tough country like India.

Some of Walsh's high-profile countrymates – hockey legend Ric Charlesworth and former cricketer Greg Chappell - did not have the best of stints as coaches of the Indian teams and Walsh said he was well aware about what they lacked.

"According to my view, it's about one's personality and flexibility. If you come to the Indian environment without flexibility, you will stagnate and die. It's not possible to deliver unless you are flexible," Walsh told reporters on the sidelines of Hockey India League Closed Bid 2013.

"You also have to have a degree of patience because it takes time to mould and change things here. It's not an instant thing.

"Some of the people who worked here previously expected instant changes which is very difficult to achieve here," he said referring to Charlesworth and Chappell.

The reputed Australian, a silver medallist in the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games, was appointed as Indian men's hockey team's chief coach last month after Michael Nobbs' sudden ouster.

Walsh, who comes with a vast experience of coaching and has also represented Australia in three Olympics, will reportedly get a salary of Rs 7.2 lakh per month from the Indian government.

Walsh, who has already started his work, said he had done his homework before landing in India.

Asked whether he had discussed with Charlesworth about what to expect in India, he said: "I played with him (Charlesworth for about 14 years). I had reasonable interaction with him before coming here. Our interaction was all about flexibility and how to be patient. Everyone can raise issues but the difficult part is to find solutions.

"When you talk about high performance in international hockey, it's about finding solutions. You can't perform if you don't have trust," he said.